November 1884
As the Hawaii islands become visible as dark lumps on the vast dawning horizon, the eighteen-year-old Chinese student’s heart swells of gladness to see from the ship’s deck the land that for three years he called his second home, even as he feels apprehensiveness about seeing his elder brother again. While he watches the islands slowly growing, the young man – known as Tai Chu to his Hawaiian teachers and classmates – contemplates the reason he was asked to return to Hawaii after being sent back to China just a year ago. If it has anything to do with the incident in the village, his brother could have just written an angry letter. Not that it would make any difference.
Life is hard in China. Many dreams of a better life in faraway lands. America with its gold mines have beckoned cheap labor since the dawn of the gold rushes. Tens of thousands of Chinese men have crossed the oceans to the unknown land of the “ocean-men”. Some returned with riches beyond their dreams, while others are never heard from again.
But Tai Chu’s dream of faraway land has little to do with gold or silver. He has exhausted all the little knowledge that the temple school can provide him and hungers for more. Much more.
Then a school comrade who had returned from a distant town told him about a wonderful thing that the “Jesus-men” had hanging on the wall of the temple school there which can answers any questions about mountains, rivers, and towns even before you ask them. The story excited his desire to go to the lands of these Jesus-men and Ocean-men and lean more of their ways. Tai Chu was sure they must have many more things than this unnamed object that will expand his knowledge.
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| Chinese miners working California's gold mines |
But since Tai Chu’s father had lost one brother to the ocean and another in California, such adventure became a forbidden topic in the family, and Tai Chu would have been forever doomed to languish in the village of Cuiheng, if it was not for his maternal uncle Young Mun-nap who took the risk to go to Hawaii and became a successful Honolulu merchant. Tai Chu’s brother, twelve years older, then followed out to start a new life in Oahu first as a vegetable and rice farmer, then a merchant.
When his brother who he calls Da Ko came back eight years later to marry a wife his parents had arranged for, Tai Chu begged his parents to return with him to Hawaii, but they would not think of risking two precious sons on the same ship. Da Ko left, but Tai Chu persisted. Eventually they relented and allowed him to go with the English steamship that Da Ko and his business partner rented for the Chinese "coolies" who volunteer to work on rice plantations at the Hawaiian King’s invitation (and commission of one hundred dollars per head.)
Tai Chu remembers the first time, at thirteen years old, he saw in Macau the steamship SS Grannock. He was intuitively vindicated that something was wrong in China. Why is it that China, that believes itself to be the greatest on Earth, cannot do something that these foreigners do? Is it not an indication that they are superior to us at least in some ways and we can learn from them, rather than building a world based solely on our own proud knowledge however ancient? Upon seeing the wonderful steamship and the vast ocean, he knew deep in his heart that he wished to learn from the West and seek for the infinite truth.
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| King Kalakaua of Hawaii (reign 1874-1891) |
His train of thought is interrupted when a nearby group of Chinese recruits asks him excitedly in their native Cantonese, “Is that Hawaii?” Tai Chu nods, “Yes, brothers. We are almost there.” The men became even more excited.
One of them is looking seasick and has a hand on his stomach says, “Thank Buddha. I can’t stand being on this rocking ship anymore…” Suddenly, he runs to grab on the nearest railing and starts vomiting into the sea but the strong wind lands it on his own gown.
A loud laugh is heard from a Hawaiian man standing not far from them. His western costume and lack of queue set him apart from the rest of the passengers who are mostly Chinese. Tai Chu has seen him around during the three week’s journey but has not spoken with him.
Tai Chu scoffs, “It's uncivilized to laugh at someone’s unwellness.”
Surprised to be scolded by a Chinese and in English at that, the Hawaiian explains himself, “I am sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude. I was just laughing because I was just standing downwind from his projectile vomiting a moment ago.”
He then gives a handkerchief to the seasick Chinese to clean himself.
Tai Chu: “Sorry for my misunderstanding then.”
“No worries. Are you Chinese? Where did you learn your English?”
Tai Chu answers, “In Hawaii. Where did you learn yours?”
The Hawaiian laughs, approaches Tai Chu and holds out his hand, “In Hawaii too. My name is Samuel. You can call me Sam. What’s your name?”
Tai Chu: To make it easier for you, people In Hawaii call me Tai Chu.
Sam: What do you do in our Hawaii?
Tai Chu: It’s not just your Hawaii. It’s my Hawaii too.
Sam: Why is that?
Tai Chu: I lived here for three years. It was here that I had a real education; and it was here that I came to know what modern, civilized societies and governments are like. That’s why I say it’s my Hawaii too. You must be kanaka maoli, native Hawaiian. What were you doing in Hong Kong?
Samuel: I am. I was just visiting Canton and Hong Kong on my way back to Hawaii after finishing my study in Tokyo.
Tai Chu is intrigued. The few Japanese in Hawaii that he has seen are poor workers in plantations, but he has heard that unlike most Asian countries, Japan is adopting Western knowledge at a fast pace.
Tai Chu: What did you study?
Sam: I got a scholarship from King Kalākaua to study nautical science in Tokyo. Our king was very impressed with Japan’s modernization when he stopped there on his around-the-world trip three years ago, so he wants to use Japan as a model for Hawaii’s strengthening.
Tai Chu: King Kalākaua is a wise man. I had the honor of receiving a prize for English grammar from his hand during my graduation ceremony two years ago. You know what he gave me as a prize? An English-language book about China!
Sam: So it wasn’t very useful to you then. You must have known everything already.
Tai Chu: On the contrary, I didn’t know anything. That book opened my eyes about my own country. At the village’s temple school, we were made to rote memorize incomprehensible sayings of Confucius and Mencius from two thousand years ago, but nothing of China’s present conditions. We were not taught history because the government are afraid that we would rise against them if we knew too much of our own history. We were not taught the geography of China itself. I didn’t even know what a map is. I had no opportunity to know about good government, since there was no one in the village who knew what government meant other than the threat of the sword of the soldier. The government wants to keep us ignorant, teaching only that the Son of Heaven rules China and that China is the greatest – the world itself. Therefore, the Son of Heaven rules the world. Imagine my surprise when I learned that China is not the center of the world, let alone the world itself. And that it is being ruled by foreigners – the Manchu!
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| Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Empire (reign 1875-1908) |
Sam: That is horrible. That is why China is so weak and being attacked by France right now. I had a plan to visit the Fuzhou Navy School, but it had already been flattened by French bombardment a few months ago.
Tai Chu: All Chinese are outraged by the French. In Hong Kong, there was a large protest and a riot by all the dockworkers who refused to service French ships. And this show of strength of the Chinese people happened on a Chinese island yielded to Britain due to the Qing Empire’s weakness.
Sam: I also read about the Opium War and got worried about Hawaii too. But in our case, it would be a Sugar War. After bringing diseases that decimated our populations, the haole brought sugar plantation and made claims on our land. Although bringing modernity and prosperity, it is gradually taking away our independence. More and more are falling under the control of the white men. They are only kind and generous to you as long as it serves their interests.
Tai Chu: The Manchurian Son of Heaven would have been overthrown by the Taiping patriots too if not for the support of European interested to protect their opium trade.
Sam: Weren't they led by a man who claimed to be Son of God and brother to Jesus?
Tai Chu: You may think Hong Xiuquan was mad, but he was a true patriot who recognized that the Chinese people were suffering because the weakness and corruption of the Manchu government. With the large-scale import of Opium that the government failed to eliminate, the country grew poorer and weaker. Farmers were heavily overtaxed, rents were rising, and peasants were deserting their lands in droves. Banditry became common, in addition to droughts and famines. Would Hawaiians not rise up against such a government – all the more so because they are foreigners?
Sam: Of course, we would.
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| A scene of the Taiping Rebellion, 1850-1864 |
Tai Chu: Please tell me more about Japan. I know that Japan has taken the Ryukyu kingdom and also has an eye on Korea. That’s because China’s own weakness and stupidity. We have to learn how they become so strong and survived Western imperialism.
Sam: They were also forced to sign an unequal treaty with the United States at the threat of the gunboat, and then with other Western powers. They begrudgingly agreed to it in order to buy time for strengthening themselves with modern knowledge and technologies. It’s amazing how much they have modernized in fifteen years.
Tai Chu: Is it even more modern than Hawaii?
Sam: No doubt about it. And they did it mostly by themselves, always mindful of foreign influence which came attached with the enterprises and loans.
Tai Chu: I’m envious. In China, the government can’t even protect us from bandits and pirates, not to mention foreign powers. There was a man in my village who returned a rich man from working the gold mines all the way in America only to be robbed of all his wealth in his own home. But worse than the bandits and pirates are the government officials. Our neighbor is a well-to-do family with three brothers. One was executed and the others thrown into jail with false charges because a corrupt mandarin wanted their house. There is no law and order in China. The government is our worst enemy. Hawaii is a small kingdom, but it has law and order, and the people are happy and prosperous. I love China and the Chinese people, but if we don’t rid itself of this corrupt government, although there are 400 million people, we won’t keep up with Hawaii, let alone Japan.
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| Manchu queue |
Sam: Yes, and I was surprised to see that people are still so stuck in their old ways with their dresses, their queues and all. Didn’t you get teased about your Chinese gown and your queue in school?
Tai Chu: You have no idea. I was one of the first few Chinese students. And it took months of fighting and defending myself to get the big bullies to leave me alone, although I don’t mind so much about the smaller kids because they are too young to know and it wouldn’t be a fair fight.
Sam: Wouldn’t it be easier to cut if off?
Tai Chu: Yes, it would be easier for me. But what about other Chinese kids who come after me? I’d rather fight the bullies and let them get used to it, so that other Chinese kids who come later and may not be so strong will not have to fight them again. The queue is imposed on us by the Manchu, but here it’s become part of our identity that connects us with China. One day when we can overthrow the Manchu rule, I will cut my queue at the same time as every Chinese man.
Sam: That’s very noble of you. I sure hope that we kanaka will learn to live harmony with people of other races who come in peace. I forgot to ask. Who do you have here?
Tai Chu: My brother has leased land from the government to develop a cattle ranch at a small town in the Kula area of Maui island. He is also involved in recruiting Chinese men to work in the plantations.
Sam: I feel sorry for them. It’s a tough life out there especially in the sugar plantations.
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| Sugar plantations in Hawaii |
Tai Chu: What are you talking about? They are happy to have a new life here. If life is tough in Hawaii, it’s ten times tougher back home. The Qing government is not doing anything but squeezing taxes out of them and their families, so they have to leave. And they are treated better here in Hawaii than in many places. The United States now bars Chinese workers. Hawaii is not like Cuba and Brazil, where they will probably end up like slaves. At least that’s what my brother says.
Sam: You really think it’s really better in those white-owned plantations? The only reason more and more of them come here is because they can get away with cheap Asian labors and treating them no better than slaves. Not only that, those haole, they have no aloha aina, and will destroy our beautiful islands and replace them with these plantations.
Tai Chu: What’s aloha aina?
Sam: It’s the deep love of our islands and our sea and of all the life that the land and the sea nourish.
Tai Chu: Is it not enough that it sustains the people?
Sam: Sustenance of the people is important, but if we have no respect and love for the land and the sea we are betraying our self.
Tai Chu: It’s like the way we Chinese worship our ancestors.
Sam: Yes, the land and the sea are our father and mother.
Tai Chu: I will remember this, and I am deeply thankful to Hawaii for helping our people to prosper and someday maybe they can contribute to strengthen our motherland which is now being surrounded by enemies.
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| Ali'iolani Hale, completed in 1874, was the home of the Hawaiian Legislature in the days before annexation. |
Sam: At least you know who your enemies are. For us, it’s become more difficult. May white settlers have become naturalized as Hawaiian on paper, but in their hearts they are not. My father is in the King’s government and he told me that some of them want the United States to annex our kingdom – not as a state within their Union but as a safe haven for importing a massive number of cheap brown workers whom they can mistreat all they want while keeping their mainland a white promised land. You know what happened to the Ryukyu Kingdom?
Tai Chu: It was a tributary state to China but taken by Japan a few years ago.
Sam: According to the Japanese, Ryukyu was a tributary state to both Japan and China. But China was not able to control or protect its tributary state, so Japan had to exert its control. Otherwise America would have annexed it as their own Hong Kong to the danger of both Japan and China.
Tai Chu: Is America becoming imperialist too?
Sam: It already is. How do you think they grew from a tiny portion on the Atlantic side of the continent to swallow up all the way to the Pacific coast which they see as their 'manifest destiny'. With Monroe Doctrine they aim to be the sole power of the Americas. On the Atlantic, they still have to contend with the British navy. But they dream of making the Pacific their own ocean. My family is from the area now leased to them in exchange for free trade in sugar. They now call it Pearl Harbor. In the long term, both Cuba and Hawaii are in danger of being annexed because of our strategic locations and sugar...”
The conversation makes Tai Chu think hard. He’s most disturbed about the conditions of Chinese workers, remembering the bondage slaves in his village who often get flogged by their angry masters and mistresses. He had protested against the system times and again until he realized that the bondage slaves can’t be freed until the minds of the “free” people of his village are liberated from ancient hierarchical traditions which the Manchu’s authoritarian government uses to legitimize themselves. All the barbaric customs of child-selling, female infanticide, concubinage, foot-binding, idol-worship and other reprehensible practices can only be eliminated with modern education instilling a sense of equality and citizenship among the people.
He hopes that the Chinese recruits on the ship have not not escaped debt enslavement at home to be enslaved in a foreign land. That adds one more thing to the list of heavy topics that he will have to convince his brother. It’s one thing to try to reason with strangers, but another thing with one’s own family.
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After saying goodbye at the dock, the two new friends part way. Sam goes to Honolulu with his awaiting family while Tai Chu waits a smaller boat that will take him to Maui where his brother awaits him. Tai Chu's apprehensiveness returns again.
At Maui’s pier, his brother in a Chinese gown and a cue stands out from the crowd. Tai Chu greets his brother with a bow and a chest-level fist-to-palm gesture. His brother whom he calls Da Ko, pats him lightly on the shoulder and leads him to a horse-drawn cart that will take them to the ranch.
After a welcome feast of Chinese food which Tai Chu has been craving for on the ship, the two brothers sit down on the veranda for some tea. After answering Da Ko’s questions about how the family is doing, Tai Chu brings up the topic that has bothered him since the morning.
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| A modern Xuanwu (Northern Emperor) shrine |
Tai Chu: Is it true that the white plantation owners treat workers like slaves?
Brother: Who told you that?
Tai Chu: A Hawaiian friend. He said they are often whipped.
Brother: Don’t listen to such nonsense. Our men should be grateful they have a job, rather than starve back home. The owners are doing them and this country a favor.
Tai Chu: Are they?
Brother: Stop questioning too much about what goes on between the Hawaiian and white people. We already have enough problems as it is. As more and more Chinese are coming to Hawaii, the white people are envious that we get along better with the natives. Now they are starting to complain that Chinese men are marrying native women and getting an advantage. If there are more problems, then they may import Filipinos and Japanese instead. So keep your head down. Don’t cause any troubles here like you did in the village.
Tai Chu knew this issue will be raised sooner or later: All I did was just breaking an old idol, and our family already paid to repair it.
Brother: You don’t get it, do you? It’s not just an old idol. It’s the Northern Emperor, the god protecting the whole village. He protected me so that I safely reached Hawaii, and he protected you on your journeys too.
Tai Chu: So how come it didn’t protect our two uncles? Did they not pray to him every day? It's just a powerless idol that can’t even defend itself.
Brother: I see that the banishment from the village didn’t do you any good. I sent you back to China last year because I thought you were getting too much influenced by the Western ways with the Bible and all. I thought going home would help reorient you in the correct way of our ancestors. I didn’t imagine the outrageous things you would do. Talking bad about the government? Lucky thing our village is remote and there are no Manchu officials to hear you. Otherwise it won’t be the idol’s arm but your neck that will be broken.
Tai Chu: The Manchu government is useless too, like the idol. They demand us to kowtow but can’t even fight the French, let alone protect us as they are supposed to. They talk so much about the Emperor’s mandate from heaven. If that's true, Heaven must be angry with them now. Oppose Qing, Revive Ming!
Brother: Stop doing things that will bring trouble and misfortune to the whole family or I will have nothing to do with you anymore. I don’t want our family to suffer because of you. They have suffered enough.
Tai Chu: That’s one thing you and I agree on, Brother. Our family has suffered enough. They have suffered because of poverty, ignorance and superstition that the government lays on us. Why did our uncles have to die far from home trying to get our family’s conditions? Why does Father have to suffer the corrupt officials who come to collect the "white deed" taxes from us every year even though we don’t own those lands anymore? Why did Mother, our aunts and sister had to suffer the torture of foot binding that could have mutilated them for life? That’s why I tried to awaken our family and our village from this nightmare.
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| Foot binding - a "badge of honor" for respectable women in imperial China |
Brother: What nightmare? What you did was a nightmare! If you still don’t listen to reason. I will have to ask that you transfer back half of the property I registered under your name while you were here last time. I thought I was doing it for the family, but at this rate you will bring disgrace, misfortune and who knows what calamity to the family.
Tai Chu: So that’s why you paid me to come back all the way here, instead of writing an angry letter. Don’t worry Brother. We can go tomorrow to the lawyer’s office and do it. Although eternally grateful, I have no desire whatsoever for the property that you have given me. I have to follow my conscience. I don’t want any harm to fall on my family. But I believe that what I do is good for the family, the village and China.
Brother: You got it backward. You don’t put yourself first. It’s not “What is good for you is good for the family.”, but rather “What is good for the family is good for you!” Today you break a sacred idol. What will you go on to break next?
Tai Chu: Whatever useless has got to go. Even an empire has to be broken if it doesn't do our people any good...
At this, Da Ko gets so upset that he storms into his bedroom and slams the door shut. He doesn’t want to continue the conversation lest he says something he may later regret.
Looking out into the darkness of the night, Tai Chu remains in his chair and thinks about the future. The young Chinese will keep the words that he has spoken to his beloved brother on this day.
In ten years, he would have started his struggle to dismantle one of the largest empires the world has ever known. Although he was known by different names during his lifetime by different people, he would soon become known forever to most of the world as Sun Yat-Sen, the Father of Modern China.
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Notes:
1. The early years of Sun Yat-sen’s life is not well documented – at least in the English language. The main source of this installment is Sun Yat Sen and the Chinese Republic by Paul Linebarger who interviewed Sun Yat Sen himself many years later when much of it has slipped from his memory.
2. Throughout his life, Sun Yat-Sen did not speak much about Hawaii and her loss of independence, although he revisited the islands several times throughout his campaign to overthrow the Qing Empire. Samuel is a fictional character that was invented to tease out what the young revolutionary might have thought and how it compared with the situation in his China.
Sources:
1. Sun Yat Sen and the Chinese Republic by Paul Linebarger
2. Sun Yat-sen in Hawai’i: Activities and Supporters by Yansheng Ma Lum and Raymond Min Kong Lim
3. Sun Yat-Sen and Hawaii by William M. Zanella
4. Hawaii: A History by Ruth M. Tabrah
5. Sugar: A Bittersweet History by Elizabeth Abbott
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